Andy Farrell has expressed his disappointment that James Lowe’s contract with Leinster and the IRFU was not renewed and admitted the player will be sorely missed. But the Irish head coach effectively ruled out the possibility of the player re-entering his considerations for next year’s World Cup.“I’m disappointed for us,” said Farrell after announcing the Irish side to face Australia in Sydney this Saturday in what was the head coach’s first press conference since the Six Nations. “He’s a larger-than-life character and he’s a brilliant player, but we all know sport and the ins and outs and the intricacies of all of that.“They become complicated from time to time and sometimes it works out, most of the time it works out for us, fortunately, but this time, obviously it didn’t. I know that James is delighted with the contract that he got in the end and he’s on to a new venture,” said Farrell in relation to Lowe’s move to Japan next year.“Hopefully, we’ll see him back in Dublin now because at this moment in time, chatting to him, he sees his family coming back and settling down in Dublin.”Farrell was asked if he felt everything possible was done to ensure Lowe stayed, mindful that Brian O’Driscoll had recently made it public that an unnamed person in the private sector had offered to act as go-between in helping to secure Lowe’s retention.“Yeah, I also read that. You know Drico, he wouldn’t tell lies. But there’s timing to all those bits, and, yeah, I suppose that didn’t align,” said Farrell, intimating that this intention came too late.Although the Irish head coach had wanted Lowe to be part of his plans until the next World Cup, which the player had described as his “north star”, Farrell maintained he had no direct involvement in the negotiations.“I speak to all the players. Am I involved in what gets offered and what gets signed? That’s not my role.”The loss of Lowe to Japan after he was offered a potentially much-reduced, appearance-related one-year contract extension, is all the more surprising given Farrell had said during the Six Nations that he both wanted the player to re-sign and, akin to Bundee Aki and Jamison Gibson-Park, expected that to come to pass.Ireland's Jamie Osborne scores a try against England in the 2026 Six Nations. Photograph: Inpho “Wanted, yeah, and hoping and all of those things,” stressed Farrell. “That’s not to say that it was definitely going to happen. A lot of things have to happen and align to get to that point, and unfortunately it didn’t happen that way.“But you started off by saying that he’d been missed on a tour like this, and yeah, we feel that. I mean, what a character and what a player that he’s been for us, and he will be thoroughly missed, but at the same time, that’s rugby, that’s life. We have to move on, and somebody has to step up and take that mantle that James has done over the last number of years, superbly for Ireland.”[ Jamie Osborne gets the nod to fill James Lowe’s boots for Ireland against AustraliaOpens in new window ]Farrell has opted to move Jamie Osborne from fullback to left wing for Saturday’s game, and he added: “So there’s an opportunity there for whether it be Jamie, there’s a few injuries in that position at this moment in time. So I don’t expect this tour solely to be the point that’s gonna tell us exactly who’s gonna take his place.“With Tommy [O’Brien] injured and Calvin Nash injured and Shayne Bolton injured and Mack [Hansen] injured and all of that, these things will take their course and hopefully we’ll get someone to fill the big shoes of James Lowe.“But at the same time, it’s the same every campaign, every year. Something happens that takes you by surprise a little bit, and I suppose it’s the same as us missing Caelan Doris on this tour, Ryan Baird on this tour, Paddy McCarthy, all of that. That’s just rugby and that’s just life and the stars didn’t align for whatever reason.“I certainly wish him all the best. I have done. I thanked him for everything that he’s done for Irish rugby.”Farrell didn’t explicitly rule out the possibility of Lowe yet being a part of his World Cup plans, but admitted the Irish policy of only picking provincially-based players (with the exception of Johnny Sexton during his two seasons with Racing 92) will be observed for the time being and most likely in the next World Cup too. “You know that we’ve held the line with that for many, many years and whatever, but we’ll see how that plays out in the next 12 months.“I mean, if we don’t develop someone and bring someone through ... I mean, push come to shove, we probably could have brought him out here. But is it the right thing to do to not develop someone and give people a chance?“I think it’s the right thing to do, to have a look and give people a bit of space to be able to do that. So, we’ll see how that goes.”[ Gordon D’Arcy: This tour could be the most useful thing to happen to Irish rugby in two yearsOpens in new window ]